The New York Times Hosts Party at Times Panned Restaurant

What better place for The New York Times to throw a party than at Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar? And when better than on the very same day that the paper ran Pete Wells’ complete and utter take-down of Guy Fieri’s Times Square restaurant.

How’s that for awkward?

The New York Times confirmed to food website The Braiser that the party did, indeed happen. “The Times ad sales department hosted an event for clients at the restaurant last night. The event was planned two months ago,” reported The Braiser.

Mr. Fieri brought up the point when he defended himself from the Times’ hate this morning on The TODAY Show. “And by the way,” Mr. Fieri said, “last night, they hosted — The New York Times hosted a 160-person party at that restaurant.”

That’s 160 people who had to eat dishes described in the pages of the Times as “a plate of pale, unsalted squid rings next to a dish of sweet mayonnaise with a distant rumor of spice,” “ghostly nubs of unblackened, unspiced white meat,” unlovable nachos and “Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders” that taste like “chewy air” rather than pretzel or awesome. Perhaps the guests drank blue cocktails that Mr. Wells wrote tasted like nuclear waste or watermelon margaritas that he found reminiscent of a “combination of radiator fluid and formaldehyde.”